To not pay for friend to get her phone fixed after I smashed it?

[katie3347]

Friday night me and my friend went out for drinks.
We were stood at the bar and I turned around quick and knocked my friends phone out of her hand,it hit the floor and smashed the screen.
It's still working but the screen is totally cracked.

She was a bit upset saying she didn't have insurance and couldn't afford to get it fixed.
I can't afford it either and shouldn't she have had insurance on such a expensive phone?
Anyway I haven't mentioned it since ..aibu to just not mention it again?
I know she probably expected me to pay to get it fixed but it was a accident and she was the one who let go once I hit her arm.

[RangeRider]

Your friend has no insurance, no decent protective case or glass screen protector and had chosen to play on her phone in what I assume to be a crowded bar surrounded by drunk people.
Where do you get the 'playing on her phone' from? She had her phone in her hand as people do. Maybe she'd nowhere to put it, maybe she'd taken it out to check a message or the time? It was knocked out of her hand by OP and therefore OP should pay. Why should the friend be forced to incur insurance etc. costs on the off chance she has clumsy entitled selfish friends?

[TidyDancer]

You definitely need to offer at least half. Like others have said, yes it was an accident but it was caused by you.

We could all spend money on other things rather than cover our obligations but when you owe something, you pay it.

[Sirzy]

I wouldn’t even dream of not offering!

I wouldn’t take money from a friend in the same circumstances but I would appreciate the offer

[butterfly56]

You should pay halves at least seeing as you were so pivotal in knocking the phone out of her hand, accident or not.
Tbh you having to even ask this question shows more about how you and your quite self absorbed personality. Not even to admit that you are at least 50% to blame for this!
You call her a friend. You are not a friend!

[Tistheseason17]

Must be a reverse.

Personally, I'd pay for it to be fixed. If I did not have the cash and could only afford half, i'd offer half.

See if her bank account has cover included for free with lower excess you could pay.

[Singlenotsingle]

You were negligent. You should pay.

[Guiltypleasures001]

If you can afford drinks out you can afford to get her phone fixed
Accident or not you caused it, get the phone fixed she's gutted poor woman
And your making it worse by keeping your head down over it

[Oysterbabe]

I'm in the you should pay camp.

[TatterdemalionAspie]

People never cease to amaze me... and not in a good way.

You broke it, you should pay for the damage you caused. WTF happened to personal responsibility and integrity?

You wouldn't be my friend any longer, that's for sure.

[TomHardysNextWife]

You broke it. You pay to repair it.

How could you even question that

[Haireverywhere]

I would have offered to pay towards it for my friend. An accident with a stranger's phone no.

[Nanny0gg]

You didn't mean to do it and it was totally an accident but I really think that an offer to pay half is reasonable and thoughtful.

Do you want to stay friends?

[BakedBeans47]

YABU.

[NervousPotato]

Yes you should pay. A lot of people don't have phone insurance as £10 a month over a 2 year contract works out more than what most people will ever claim back...

If you broke a pair of her glasses would you refuse because you expected her to have insurance on those also? Phone insurance isn't mandatory and btw even if you do have insurance you still have to pay an excess, mine is £60 for example.

[amymel2016]

You should offer half, you must have some disposable income as you were in a bar. Could you give her £10 a week?

[flowery]

”It's about £80 for a new screen.
That's £40 I could use for other things.”

I expect she could use the £80 for other things too...

If you cause an accident you pay for the damage. Something doesn’t have to be malicious or deliberate to be your responsibility.

[MrMeSeeks]

Yes you should pay!
You broke it!
If you can go out, you can afford to offer some money towards getting it fixed

[DolorestheNewt]

I would absolutely offer to pay half, unless you are really skint. Insurance is irrelevant as it usually comes with an excess that specifically disincentivises claims under £100, and you also have to declare any claims you've made every time you apply for new insurance, for any product, for five years, so your premiums will go up (seen as a risk factor that you are prepared to make claims).

I don't mean to sound joyless, and I think everyone, ideally, should have enough money to be able to go out for drinks, cinema, nightclubs, etc., but from the fact that this happened in a bar, I'm assuming that you do generally have a small amount of recreational cash at the end of the week. Some of it needs to be diverted for a couple of weeks towards splitting the cost of your friend's phone repair. If you're feeling bad enough to post on MN, my guess is that you'll feel better about doing so once the financial pain is history!

[MarthasGinYard]

You broke it

You should pay

I had screen mended on iPhone for 50 quid.

[eddielizzard]

If your roles were reversed what would you want you to do?

[pouraglasshalffull]

Yes you should pay. You broke it not her

[HPFA]

I wonder how the people saying "shouldn't have to pay" would react if someone damaged their car and then said "I won't pay - you ought to have fully comprehensive insurance?"

[Creeper8]

This reminds me of that time my baby broke a key on my sisters laptop, it was only one key but when I took it to the shop to get it repaired they said the whole keypad needed replacing as they couldn’t replace just one. I was a single mother on benefits at the time yet I still offered to pay for it because my baby broke and my sister took up the offer despite it costing nearly half of What I had to live on for the week. I sucked it up and paid it because it was my baby that broke it even though it was an accident, she was only nine months old. I can’t believe someone wouldn’t pay for something they broke.

[Rudgie47]

You should offer to pay or at least go halves.
You cant be that broke that you cant afford that otherwise you wouldn't be out drinking.
All the people I know who are truly skint don't go out at all.

[SpicedApplesAndRaspberries]

You smashed the screen so therefore you should pay, if I did what you have done to a friend of mine I would have instantly told her not to worry bevause I would be paying for it to get fixed.